Don’t Go in the House

The events unfold in a contemporary late-20th-century American milieu, where everyday work life intersects with sudden acts of extreme violence. The urban and suburban settings reflect a period of apparent normalcy that is shadowed by a brutal crime spree and a creeping sense of supernatural hauntings.

The story centers on a dilapidated Victorian residence where Donny lives with his mother, a setting that becomes a claustrophobic stage for his growing fire fixation. Intersecting locations—Kathy Jordan's flower shop, a nightclub disco, and a grocery store—mark key moments in Donny's increasingly violent routine. These spaces contrast ordinary life with the moment when social normality collapses into ritual murder and burning acts.

🔥 Fire & Obsession

Donny's fixation with fire drives his actions, turning murder into a ritualized act. The house itself becomes a furnace where he enacts punishment on both living victims and his mother’s memory. Fire serves as both method and symbol for his uncontrollable impulses. The flamethrower and the burning configurations heighten the sense of inescapable compulsion.

🕯️ Abuse & Guilt

The abusive relationship with his mother shapes Donny's psyche, trapping him in a cycle of fear, guilt, and violence. His confession to Father Gerritty reveals a struggle to reconcile evil with morality, yet his actions perpetuate the harm. Guilt manifests as internal voices and visions that haunt him and distort his sense of self. Trauma from his past drives the moral disintegration witnessed in the present.

👁️ Haunting & Voices

After the mother's death, Donny is haunted by disembodied voices that seem to guide or condemn him. The corpses he arranges and paralyzes with memories become a macabre audience, blurring line between reality and specter. The ending hints that the haunting will recur, as a new child, Michael, hears the same whispers and is drawn toward them.